Firing Squad - Consolitis. Thanks Ant.Generally, the only way to determine a feature is missing is if the game in question is a sequel or part of a genre that is prominent on PC. Examples include: no ability to lean in an FPS, no dedicated servers for multiplayer, no access to console commands, not being able to quick save, etc. Now that I think about it, several missing features can be attributed to the game being designed to work with a controllerÖ Usually, these canít easily be fixed during the porting process, so they arenít.

bit-gamer.net - A Death Worth Having.From a less casual perspective, the fail state is something that we shouldnít have to tolerate. Itís rarely fun to slog through the same content again and again because we keep messing up one thing, and hereís the crux of the matter: death becomes nothing more than an annoyance. Itís not dramatic, itís not emotional; at best it invokes an eye-roll at the prospect of fighting through the same goons again, at worst a mouse gets launched into a £200 monitor and we find ourselves mourning the loss of hardware more than the death of Super Soldier X, who is now deciding whether to retry from checkpoint or load an earlier save.

MCV - Games education must move quickly.Ironically, todayís children are naturally attracted to the digital world. They are a connected generation. They prefer to access and process information when needed using whatever media devices are available. Calculators and smartphones are not a substitute for learning; they enable it. It would be a simple matter to inspire them with creative computing. Enable them to build digital bridges for their shared world. Collaborating in teams with different but complementary skills naturally prepares them for their working life.

He's right, though, because ultimately all fail states do is that they punish you for playing. There needs to be something there that allows you to fail, but there also needs to be something more imaginative to integrate failure into the worlds being designed rather than just a binary state where you either succeed or you try again until you do.

Wing Commander did it years ago, and I don't think I can name more than a handful of games to have done it since...it allowed you to fail and continue with the consequences of the failure. It was a lot more interesting than just a simple you win/you lose to everything you did.